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A Discussion with Christian McBurney, Author of The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War

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On July 29, 1778, a powerful French naval squadron sailed confidently to the entrance of Narragansett Bay, and signaled the commencement of the first joint French and American campaign of the Revolutionary War. In his new book, The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War, Christian McBurney gives a detailed history of the campaign, one of the most complex and multi-faceted events of the war.

McBurney has been praised by the Providence Journal as “one of the premier chroniclers of the state’s history during the American Revolution,” and Dennis Conrad, editor of the “Naval Documents of the American Revolution” and “Papers of General Nathaniel Greene,” has written that the book provides “a fresh, nuance, and compelling reinterpretation of the United States’ first joint operation … This work will be the standard for years to come.”

McBurney, a graduate of Brown University and Rhode Island native, is a partner in a Washington, DC, law firm. He is the author of several books and articles on early Rhode Island history, including A History of Kingston, Rhode Island, 1700–1900 and British Treatment of Prisoners During the Occupation of Newport, 1776–1779.